There are increasing needs for preserving data, such as books, as electronic data. The reason is the fact that it has become possible to preserve national tax-related books and documents as electronic data in addition to preserving them on paper.
Books and documents concerning national taxes must be preserved for a long time that is several years and more. Further, many requirements must be satisfied to preserve books and documents concerning national taxes as electronic data because of the nature of them. Referring to some of the requirements, (1) it must be possible to display the data on a display or print out it as occasions demand; (2) the data must be recorded such that a history of corrections, additions and deletions made to the same can be checked; (3) it must be possible to retrieve the data using keywords such account entries and types of leases, and (4) there must be a function of extracting and listing data on a particular item that further satisfies certain requirements (e.g., a function of extracting data on slips for a particular customer).
Recent software products have a short life cycle, and new programs and upgraded versions of programs are being introduced to the market one after another. Therefore, there is a concern about situations in which data cannot be read immediately because the program used for writing the data in a recording medium is unavailable when the data is to be read (because it is not installed in the terminal used, for example). One method for solving this problem is to preserve data to be preserved and a program for reading the data in combination in the same recording medium (a CD-ROM, for example). According to this method, the data can be read later at even a terminal in which the program for reading the data is not installed.
However, the above-described method in which data to be preserved and a program for reading the data are preserved in combination with each other in the same recording medium has a problem in that the stored program can be easily copied and used on an illegal basis. For example, it is easy to copy the contents of a recording medium in which data and a program for reading the data from the recording medium are recorded, to read the data using the program for reading recorded along with the data thereafter, to rewrite the contents of the data to contents that are to be newly recorded, and to record the contents in a different recording medium along with the copied program. This operation can be repeated.
This results in problems when costs required for the development and sale of the program, technical supports for the same, and so on are to be collected as a selling price of the system or program or a license fee for the use of the same. In particular, when a read program having special functions is recorded in a recording medium along with data similarly to preservation of data, it is very much problematic that the software can be copied and used on an illegal basis. The reason is that a great cost is required for the development of such a read program because it must have special functions, as described above. While such a program is not distributed in the market in a large quantity, long term technical supports by the manufacturer are desired for the program because data must be reliably read when needed. However, the fact that the program can be easily copied and used on an illegal basis makes it difficult to recover development costs and costs required for technical supports.
One method for recovering development costs for a program is to set a high selling price or license fee in exchange for allowing the program to be copied. However, this method is not preferable, not only for users but also for sellers, because it can prevent the market scale from expanding. Above all, it is not preferable to allow a situation in which some users bear a high cost in purchasing a program or getting a license on the same in the presence of users who are free to use it on an illegal basis.
Under the circumstances described above, there is a need for a measure to prevent a program for reading data to be preserved from being easily used on an illegal basis even when the data to be preserved and the program for reading the data are recorded in the same recording medium.
The present invention provides a technique for preserving data to be preserved and a program for reading the data in the same recording medium, the technique preventing the program required for reading the data to be preserved from being copied on an illegal basis.
There is also a need for a measure to charge for the use of a program for reading data when the reading program is recorded in a recording medium along with the data. Since a recording medium in which a reading program is recorded along with data to be preserved may be freely transferred or handed over, the person or computer (is considered to be licensed at the purchase of software) that has created the recording medium is not necessarily identical to a person or computer that utilizes the program recording in the medium later. Therefore, charging for each act of creating or using the recording medium is in line with the idea of granting a license to use the program recorded in a recording medium. Further, it is preferable for a developer to have various methods to recover development costs, and this may be also advantageous for users in that an initial cost for purchasing is reduced.
The present invention also provides a method of separately charging for the use of a method of preserving data to be preserved and a program for reading the same in the same recording medium.